Advocacy

The Historical and Cultural Museums Assistance Program (MAP) at the Maryland Historical Trust has been funded for the first time in over a decade by the FY26 Maryland General Assembly!

The statewide grant program was allocated $300,000 in the final FY2026 Budget Bill and Maryland Historical Trust will grant out $285,000 to Maryland museums. The deadline was 12/31/25 and grants will be announced by April 2026. Over 100 applications were received. 

Governor Moore's proposed FY27 budget, released in late January, includes $285,000 to the Maryland Historical Trust in the Department of Planning to retain the MAP grants!

Our FY27 request remains, in alignment with our advocacy partner, Maryland Center for History and Culture is $5M for the Museums Assistance Program grant.

In FY27, Md Museums Association is in full support of Maryland Humanities and their request of $500,000 in funding for their SHINE (Strengthening the Humanities Investment in Nonprofits for Equity ) grant program. 

In the FY26 Budget Bill, the SHINE program was only funded at $250,000 — a reduction of $750,000 from FY25 — which led Maryland Humanities to reduce the quantity (from 90 to 30) and amount (from $10,000 to $5,000).

In FY27, the Maryland Heritage Area Coalition is working to reintroduce a bill to improve and enhance the current Maryland Heritage Area Program grant program.  In FY26, the bipartisan "Heritage Area Bill" was passed on Sine Die but was vetoed by Governor Moore.  There was no and there is no funding impact.